Foreign territory
by likewise.licorice
Summary: The Dane was always fixated on his own pretentious world of trying to impress others around him. It was his way of coping with his new change in scenery. Unfortunately for him, Nikolaus, the only person Søren legitimately wanted to befriend, remained adequately unimpressed. Søren was certain the nord didn't even know his name.


One of the school's foreign exchange students found his way into the library, under normal circumstances he would have never went into this room of his own free will, but he was attempting to skip Chemistry and this was the meeting place agreed upon by a few of his friends. Søren had never skipped a class before he switched schools and he was as nervous about getting caught as ever. The Dane was a terrible liar, but he felt such a rush from doing something against the rules, even if it was such a small act. Most of the other kids in the school grouped him together with the jocks, kids who aren't afraid of fighting or doing something risky, like the guys on the football team that always brought beer and drank behind the bleachers. In all honesty, Søren was nothing like that, he had a multitude of insecurities and was the laziest teenager he knew, but he wanted to fit in, he'd been doing all sorts of things to impress his classmates. He wanted to feel needed, at least while he was still in The States. Once Søren was back in Denmark he knew things would just go back to the way they used to be, so he'd have to make the best of it while he was here.

Søren was walking in circles, anxious about getting caught. What if his friends didn't show? What if he were caught and he couldn't come up with a good enough excuse? The Dane stopped himself before he went any farther, he decided to take a look around and try to get his mind off of various school punishments. The library was a rather large room with a tall ceiling, the bookcases were lined up in such a way it made the place look like a maze. The room smelled sort of old and dusty, not many kids used it anymore, and the only light source were large arched windows lined up on two walls that sort of reminded Søren of a cathedral. He walked along the shelves, running his finger tips across the spines of the books, it felt very calming. He found himself smiling as he made his way through the spiraling cases. The tousled blonde was so lost in his own world he hadn't even noticed the other student in the room. When Søren turned to traverse another row of books the other teen caught his attention.

The lighter blonde sat at one of the few round tables at the back of the library. Søren looked the other boy over carefully; he had a text book open in front of him and reading glasses placed low on the bridge of his nose, it looked like he was taking notes in his binder for some sort of history class. The Dane remembered who he was staring at once he saw the gold cross piece keeping his hair pinned back. It was Nikolaus, another foreign exchange student. He was Norwegian, Søren had taken a liking to him some years back. Not that he had a crush on the nord, Søren was raised catholic surprisingly enough, he just wanted to befriend him. The Dane had attempted on numerous occasions but Nikolaus made it abundantly clear that he was not interested. That was around the time that Søren had started showing off to get his new friends attentions. Nikolaus probably thought he was an idiot, he probably didn't even remember his name, Søren thought to himself with a frown. He continued to watch the Norwegian calmly taking notes, seemingly all but ignoring his current existence, before he noticed something was off.

"Are you alright?" The Dane finally broke the silence. He meant to ask more quietly but his voice sounded unusually loud, even to himself. The nord seemed irked that he was being interrupted so unannounced and looked up to address the other.

"What do you mean?" He spoke roughly, as if his voice wasn't used to speaking.

"You look kind of… depressed." Nikolaus only gave a soft hm in reply."What?"

"You aren't the first one to say that to me. Really, I'm fine. This is just my face." The Norwegian replied flatly, his dulled, indigo eyes watching the other teen calmly.

Søren furrowed his brow as he took a few steps closer to the table, cocking his head slightly as he took in the boys features. Nikolaus was definitely a man, his strong jaw and squared shoulders made that apparent, but he carried himself in such a way that made him seem so unrealistically refined. He had high cheekbones and eyelashes long enough to touch the lenses in his glasses. He was porcelain, which only made the pink in his lips stand out further, and he kept himself so clean. Søren had already noticed all of these things years ago, except,

"I've never seen you smile before."

The question clearly took Nikolaus off guard. "Well, the only time you've seen me is here in this room right now." He spoke pointedly as he returned his eyes to his paper and began working again, indicating that the conversation was over. But Søren wasn't ready to leave just yet.

"No, we have oceanography together." He spoke up, walking to the table he placed his hands on the back of a chair situated across from the nord, trying to entice more conversation out of him.

"Hm, I don't remember." Søren sighed inwardly and hung his head, of course Nikolaus would make it difficult. Just then, he heard the library door open and the voices of the friends he'd been waiting for drifted in. The Dane grinned as he started to make his way back to the front, internally relieved that no one got in trouble for skipping. Søren paused just before he rounded the book case and turned to glance back at Nikolaus once more.

"..You seem kind of lonely." He didn't mean to say it out loud and felt flustered when the Norwegian looked up to reply. He could already tell he'd fucked up before Nikolaus could even make a sound.

"Really?" No, Nikolaus was not happy, "Because I'm just feeling kind of busy."

With that he bundled up everything he had on the table and made his way to the side exit.

"Wait, Nik, I didn't mean-"

"Don't call me Nik," The shorter of the two paused with on hand on the doorknob, although he didn't bother to turn and face the Dane as he spoke, "You'd better be back for oceanography, Søren. Ms. White is still pissed that you skipped last time." Nikolaus left the library then, letting the door slam shut behind him.Søren smiled as his friends threw pencils at him to get his attention.

"So he does remember my name."

* * *

Let me know how you'd like the story to progress, the continuation is still undetermined so feedback is appreciated.


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